On Saturday, July 1st, stones were pelted on the Dharwad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express train in Karnataka. The stone pelting resulted in damage to a windowpane in one of the chair cars. No serious injuries were suffered by the passengers.
The stone pelting took place between 3.30 and 4 PM on Saturday, July 1, soon after the train left Davangere. There have been no injuries, and the train service was not disrupted.
The attack comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the exclusive ultra-luxury semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express between Bengaluru and Dharwad on June 28. This is the third instance in Karnataka that stones have been hurled at the Vande Bharat train.
On February 25, 2023, in eastern Bengaluru, stone pelting damaged six side windows in two chair cars of the Chennai-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express. There were no casualties. To prevent such incidents, RPF officers have been deployed on the Vande Bharat Express and long-distance trains.
Several incidents of stone pelting on Vande Bharat trains have come to the fore. On 18 June, stones were pelted on Dehradun-Delhi Vande Bharat Express near Muzaffarnagar station. However, no passengers were injured as a result of the stone-pelting incident. The stone pelting occurred near Muzaffarnagar station on the Delhi-Dehradun route on the E1 coach of the Vande Bharat Express.
According to a report published last month, Bhopal-Delhi Vande Bharat Express witnessed stone pelting just two months after PM Modi inaugurated the train. In the last sixty days of its run, 30 windowpanes and door panes were damaged due to stone pelting.
“16 windowpanes and door glass have been replaced in the last month. We currently do not have any replacement stock. Temporary repairs have been made to the damaged parts. It could take several weeks. The issue of stone pelting has been reported to higher authorities. Since the train moves at 160km per hour, such damage could result in passengers being injured,” a rail official involved in maintenance informed TOI.
In May, stones were hurled on a Vande Bharat train in Andhra Pradesh. The attack resulted in delaying the train by four hours. After examining the CCTV footage, police identified six offenders, out of whom some were minors. All the offenders were booked under Section 153 of the Railways Act.
The Vande Bharat Express trains are a major success story for the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The Vande Bharat trains have become a popular mode of transportation among travellers, but they have also been a target of political opposition. The Vande Bharat Express, or Train 18, has been attacked multiple times across the country since its first commercial run on February 17, 2019. Earlier this year, OpIndia published a list of attacks on the Vande Bharat Express train since its first commercial run.
